Night Train

I was just a few lazy moments from taking a week off from the photo blog and suddenly decided to do something different.

Instead of walking away, I feel like hanging out on the wrong side of the tracks and running toward my inner train. Like the storms I talked about last week, trains tickle an internal trigger that lure me to the sound of steel, whine of the rail and a deep wish to understand the artsy graffiti and the souls who created it.

Over twenty summers ago, I worked at a small town granary where farmers brought their harvest to either be stored in the huge bins or carried away by the night train. We called it the night train because cars would magically appear during the night after we’d all gone home for the night. Some days we worked until after midnight waiting on the last load. The train cars were never there when we left…but always there when we arrived in the morning by 6 a.m.

I hope you’ll traipse along the tracks with me this week. I have no idea what kind of poetry or photography I’ll be able to find and conjure, but that’s part of the mystery and fun, right?

I’ve been thinkin’ bout you all day baby
waitin’ on that sun to go down
whatcha say I pick you up after work
slide over, well slip out to the outskirts of town
got a blanket and a fifth of comfort
a little something to knock off the edge
it’s supposed to get a little cool tonight
looks like I’m gonna have to hold you tight… yeah

Bout a mile off old mill road
in that spot nobody knows
park the truck and we take off running
hurry up, girl I hear it coming
got a moon and a billion stars
sound of steel and old box cars
the thought of you is driving me insane
come on baby let’s go listen to the night train

yeah I hope its gonna be a long one
if were lucky its moving slow
wouldn’t mind if it lasted all night
lying next to you on that hillside lets go

Bout a mile off old mill road
in that spot nobody knows
park the truck and we take off running
hurry up girl, I hear it coming
got a moon and a billion stars
sound of steel and old box cars
the thought of you is driving me insane
come on baby lets go listen to the night train

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I think the statute of limitations is up … my favorite place to hang out was the train station, under the platform, with markers and spray paint 😉 I spent a lot of time at the station, tagging (shhh, I’m reformed now) and just sitting watching the trains go through, wondering about the people getting off and on. I love traveling by train, the best trips were on them! You’d love the tracks by my house, they’d make for some excellent “abandoned” type shots, since the flooding they haven’t repaired any of it along the line through my county and in spots it’s gaping holes where the tracks used to be and now the river took over. Of course it makes it rough to walk the tracks anymore though 😉

Soooo envious! You continue to hook me further with your coolness. I have yet to travel by train and long to do it. I applied for that crazy Amtrak residency, but have already decided that I’m going to take a trip whether I get selected or not. Are you one of the reformed graffiti gals? Some of those cars are like art! I have to get out to the tracks this week and see what I can find. Most of my pictures are of tracks and very few of trains (I keep getting shooed by the cops!)

I wanted the ability to do that awesome art like graffiti, I didn’t have the talent for that but for whatever reason I love street art (or train art in this case!). I’d be the one scrawling lines of poetry though!

I was supposed to take another train trip two years ago from the east coast straight through to the west coast all by myself, it was to be a glorious couple of weeks of silence and me time lol I had to cancel, I was sad for a month! If you do take one, the best way to do it is with your own sleeper, that way if you want to meet people or talk to anyone you can go to the other cars (dining, etc) but if you just want to relax and literally watch the world go by, you have that option.

Of course my Dad was/is a train nut, the man is almost 70 and STILL has his Lionel trains set up in the basement. Our vacations were spent at train museums, shows, shops …